U.S. stocks jumped on Bernanke's comments, bucking a downward trend in global equities and oil prices from the uncertainty created by Italy's election which gave no political parties a parliamentary majority, posing the threat of prolonged instability in the euro zone's third-largest economy.

Italy led a sell-off in lower-rated euro zone debt on Tuesday, pushing 10-year Italian bond yields up to 4.90 percent, their highest since mid-December, leading Spanish and Portuguese yields higher.

U.S. Treasuries yields held near one-month lows on Tuesday, supported by safe-haven demand from investors worried about the situation in the euro zone.

"It is one thing to have a surge in yields on Italy debt; it is another thing to talk about a bailout of Italy and we are not close to anything like that, at this time. It's just a massive repricing event, and that's enough to pull funding away from equities in the short-term," said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities.

The euro steadied around $1.3064, after falling to a seven-week low of $1.3018 on Tuesday.

The yen traded down 0.2 percent against the dollar at 92.17. The yen hit its lowest since May 2010 of 94.77 on Monday before the outcome of Italian vote rattled financial markets and sent the yen soaring to 90.85 yen. The yen was also down 0.3 percent against the euro to 120.41 after jumping to 118.74 on Monday from its day's low of 125.36.

Traders have said the rapid pace of yen weakening over the past three months has probably paused, with markets looking for a fresh catalyst -- including the Bank of Japan's actual rather than proposed unconventional easing steps, and Japanese investors buying foreign assets.

"The money flows into short yen trades are slowing, and the risk of losing on short yen action has increased significantly in recent days," Hastings said.

U.S. crude was up 0.2 percent to $92.79 a barrel, recovering from Tuesday's low of $91.92, its lowest since January 4.